Mark Lawrence Quotes

The idea that we cause harm by doing what we perceive to be the right thing, that's another theme that interests me. Because most people don't intend to cause harm, they cause harm by doing the right thing - in their mind.

When you think you're a really good person, you're actually capable of doing some real harm to people, either knowingly or unknowingly. It's the big little lie that we all live in.

Little evil would be done in the world if evil never could be done in the name of good.

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.

Revolting means for good ends make the ends of themselves revolting.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?

Dishonesty is all about the small acts we can take and then think, 'No, this not real cheating.' So if you think that the main mechanism is rationalization, then what you come up with, and that's what we find, is that we're basically trying to balance feeling good about ourselves.

It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.

It's always the good men who do the most harm in the world.

He [William Gladstone] made his conscience not his guide but his accomplice.

Evil is wrought by want of thought

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Though I had an idea of what was going on - I purposely didn't see it.

Sometimes, people do the darkest acts in the name of helping protect their loved ones.

I think I wear my hypocrisy on my sleeve. I would never say I'm not a complete hypocrite.

There are people who do what they believe is right, but as they say, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'

There are people in positions of power that are righteous about what they believe: they're enacting out evil principles, but they don't believe that that's what they're doing.

For a long time, I felt that was actually the best I could ever hope for - to pretend to be a good person - because I was quite the opposite.

I don't think there's a morally perfect way to do anything in life, but I'm not a filmmaker who tries to hide my mess.

At times, when everything is good, you enjoy your peak, but you are sometimes not able to differentiate between right and wrong - everything seems to be good even if you know it's bad. So this is what I have learnt.

Whatever harm the evil may do, the harm done by the good is the most harmful harm.

Mahlia... understood Doctor Mahfouz and his blind rush into the village. He wasn't trying to change them. He wasn't trying to save anyone. He was just trying to not be part of the sickness. Mahlia had thought he was stupid for walking straight into death, but now, as she lay against the pillar, she saw it differently. She thought she'd been surviving. She thought that she'd been fighting for herself. But all she'd done was create more killing, and in the end it had all led to this moment, where they bargained with a demon ... not for their lives, but for their souls